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U-M named 'Great College to Work For' 10th year in a row

U-M named 'Great College to Work For' 10th year in a row

The University of Michigan has been recognized as a great place to work by the Chronicle of Higher Education for a 10th straight year.

The university was specifically recognized for outstanding benefits and compensation, based on the results of the Chronicle's 2017 "Great Colleges to Work For" survey of faculty and staff.

According to the Chronicle, 232 institutions participated in the survey in 2017, and 79 colleges and universities made the list.

Results are based on a two-part assessment process: an institutional audit that captured demographics and workplace policies, and a survey.

The Chronicle uses ModernThink LLC, a human capital consulting firm, to conduct surveys of faculty and staff at participating institutions. Survey feedback is the primary factor in determining which institutions are recognized.

Comments

John Mx

on 8/26/17 at 4:12 pm

The University is a great place to work, unless you work for ITS. The central IT organization is full of bigotry and hatred against the LGBT, Women, and minorities especially those designated as "foreigners" such as Arabs, Asians and Hispanics who have all been removed or demoted or pushed out of the organization to create a homogenous heterosexual male organization lead by the CIO, Kelli Trosvig. Ms. Trosvig perpetuates a black widow/Nazi persona leadership style. Unless you are a male willing to accept and reciprocate special favors with the CIO you will not be allowed to succeed in the organization. The few acceptable heterosexual non-foreign appearing females that work directly for the CIO are required to be large and unattractive with a subservient nature without the ability to demonstrate or voice independent thought leadership. Those who have a prior successful track record or capability of independent thoughts need not apply or stay at the leadership level, as your reputation would be tarnished with long standing association with the Leadership in ITS. She is fond of Indian and black women, but if you are a black man, I would suggest you look elsewhere also. She has her strange prejudices and inconsistencies so the appearance of full racism is not easily detected. One must pay attention to the patterns of whom she has made miserable and pushed out or demoted. ITS is one of the worst places to work at the University and staying there is association with the CIO that has a reputation in higher ed as career suicide by association.

P L

on 9/09/17 at 8:40 pm

The new CIO at Dearborn is cut from the same cloth. Maybe that's just how women in IT leadership need to be to succeed at UM.

Carrie S

on 8/29/17 at 10:19 pm

Having worked at ITS and other units at the University I would agree that the U is a great place to work. However, if your only perspective is ITS under Kelli Trosvig's reign then the U is a horrible place to work. In the time Trosvig has been at ITS we have seen the organization take the U in tremendous leaps and bounds backwards in progress. The amount of incompetent leadership and toxicity that she exudes while creating her army of brainwashed YES men is astounding for what is accepted by the U. I hope once her tenure is up we can still salvage something and catch up with other universities ability to deliver in the realm of technology.

Jack K

on 8/31/17 at 7:48 pm

I concur with the other comments about the CIO, Trosvig. The comments made on a previous record where she was introduced have proven to be true. She is exactly what UW said she would be, if not worse, and she is an expensive liability for the University that is contrary to everything good and positive that this institution should be. It's a real shame we have made this mistake and continued to carry on indefinitely. It's in all our best interest she will not make it to her full 5 year term as each year of negative impact multiples, especially as she builds a leadership team to be identical to her beliefs and style of dictatorship, bullying, and animosity. That damage will spread wide and will be carried on for many years to come even after she departs. She is in the process of creating a legacy of destruction and disgrace.

David J

on 9/01/17 at 4:53 pm

This is the link (https://record.umich.edu/articles/kelli-trosvig-become-u-ms-first-vp-inf...) that people are talking about. Kelli Trosvig is the reason that we can't be great at the University and why ITS is not a good place for us to be. She is wasting more more money by adding more layers of Executives between the layers of Executives that already exist. She is going to put us on financial ruin like she did to UW. We don't need more executive directors and CTOs and other CISOs and COOs. Cut the costs of IT please!!!

Jackie .

on 9/04/17 at 8:43 pm

Cue the comments being closed/taken down (again) by Trosvig in 3......2......1.......

Jen F

on 9/09/17 at 12:23 pm

It is strange that ITS has no strategy after hiring a new and more expensive CIO for a year now. Laura Patterson used to spend time with us face to face sharing where she is leading the organization. The difference between Kelli and Laura is that Kelli cost more, cant not present coherently in public, and is now trying to copy the Next Gen program without the strategy, polished speeches, and clear direction on where to go. Maybe the name the Last Gen isn't too catchy, so she isn't using the name? My point is - this is not new, it's reused without the nice branding and it costs more. She is also on this whole Cloud First mantra, great, but this is also not new. Bill Wrobleski already push us to the Cloud 6-7 years ago. So thanks again, Trosvig for more expensive repeats that have already been done better the first time. Why is Trosvig more expensive and with more overhead? Kelli is even adding more layers and more executives. How many new Directors, Associate Directors, Executive Directors, CISOs, CTOs, COOs, Managers, Supervisors do we need? I guess Laura couldn't figure out how to make IT expensive enough, so Kelli is here to make sure that the spend on IT is greater and less efficient for the University. If the goal is to be the MOST expensive IT organization of any University accomplishing the least, I think we've achieved this. We can call her program the WorstGen this time.

H S

on 9/09/17 at 7:42 pm

It's true, ITS is not a good place to be. The rest of the U is great. Women have been treated worse with the new CIO, and it's clear the standards are different for us. My male peers are able to work flexible schedules and be recognized for their work. As a female of the general employee population aside from a couple on the inner circle, those benefits are not an option. We are talked down to and not included in what matters. Our opinions are not valued. Tall, attractive, straight males are the only ones with a chance with our CIO and the boys club.

Mike P

on 9/10/17 at 10:19 am

I am also an ITS employee and it has been a very rough year for us. The only strategy we have at this point is a push to the cloud (which we were doing as part of NextGen), but why are we doing it? And why is it that no one can answer how many applications and services we have that are already cloud enabled? I would hope that executive leadership would build a strategy around a real need, not just guess at something and then try to build a case around it. I've been at the University a long time, and this is the first time I feel embarrassed about where I work.

Steve S

on 9/10/17 at 1:59 pm

IT can be an accelerator to the organization or an albatross. It seems that the choice that we are taking is not to accelerate. Why are we investing so much on a failing effort. When will enough voices be listened to?

T S

on 9/10/17 at 2:08 pm

Aside from ITS, this article is true. The majority of the ITS executives there are poisonous and incompetent. You feel dirty after any meeting with them. Anyone competent has left or will leave soon. If you associate with ITS, your own reputation will be in ruins. They can't be trusted with their word. Get ready for fact twisting and missing important details or having you sign up for something you didn't hear that may have been informally mentioned when you are within 25 feet of the conversation.

Bill B

on 9/10/17 at 11:45 pm

These comments are true. The University is a great place to be. However, ITS people under Trosvig's influence like to have you "agree" or "approve" of decisions or changes that are vaguely or indirectly shared, and they will blast you and escalate in all directions even though you never heard what was said. A "brainstorm" easily becomes a commitment that never occurred. It's a common technique to get us on campus to be "on board" when clearly what they want you to sign up for is either expensive, non-sense, or not in compliance. They are also good at actually agreeing to work that is clearly defined and accepted, and walk away with telling people they didn't agree as a reason of not delivering. Either way you deal with them, you will lose. If you can get your IT work done by your own unit, by buying it from another unit, go to an outside vendor or the cloud on your own - do it. You'll have it faster, cheaper, and it will be better for the University in the long run!

Ryan H

on 9/11/17 at 12:00 am

There needs to be an assessment of directors, executive directors, and all the C-levels they want to add, and span of control with ITS in comparison to campus. If we are going to the cloud, we don't need this. Way too much overhead in ITS. This is not a recipe for greatness. Only unnecessary expense. How many are there? Does anyone even know? Trosvig is double the cost of the last CIO, and she wants to add her own CTO? Why? To do her job that she can't do?

S B

on 9/11/17 at 10:50 am

I hope that campus understands that most of ITS is NOT behind her. Period. You would be shocked at the amount of back-channel communication going on that is very critical of her. Much of this his at a very high level within ITS, and some have expressed concerns to the highest levels within in the university. Speaking up openly is career suicide because the culture she enforces has no room for feedback.

ITS does not hate academic norms. Most of us just want to provide good services and build strong partnerships. We are all U of M. This thing is broken from the top down and not from the bottom up.

C C

on 9/11/17 at 10:22 pm

Ditto! We have been working around her whenever possible.

Grace J

on 9/11/17 at 10:29 am

I love the University and it is a wonderful place to work. I can't say I disagree with all the comments here though. I have worked with those ITS people and can see why it's horrible for them. They have no leadership or direction, so it just has become toxic and will take years to undo the current damage. Aside from that, UM is Forever Valiant in my book. Go Blue!

123 456

on 9/11/17 at 10:57 am

It is rough being at ITS these days. We have really strong team leads and very capable managers who keep this ship afloat. Above that it all falls apart at the director level. No leadership. No strategic vision. Lots of politics. Tons of jockeying for position in Trosvig's eyes. And until changes are made things will not improve. An earlier comment mentions that ITS does care and this is true. We have some really dedicated people who want to do a good job for campus. Letting campus down doesn't do any of us any good. We are in it together, and if we let this divide us we will all continue hurting together.

I E

on 9/11/17 at 2:08 pm

The CIO does not realize that free speech does not mean that people aren't allowed to be offended by or disagree with what she says. Free speech is not an excuse to say racist, homophobic, sexist things. Or in some cases just condescending, false, or demoralizing remarks about colleagues across campus and act like this represents all of us at ITS. The Constitution may protect your right to say some of those things, but you are certainly not protected from being called out for doing so. I thank the Record for allowing us to share our voice and concerns.

J .

on 9/11/17 at 2:36 pm

Before we begin commending The Record, remember that they recently instituted a time limit on comments at our CIO's insistence and have also removed comments from some articles. She clearly has the power to silence her critics.

James A

on 9/11/17 at 2:20 pm

For those working with Trosvig and her leadership, it's important to understand the difference between constructive criticism and destructive criticism is the presence of a personal attack and impossible standards. These so-called "critics" often don't want to help you improve, they just want to nitpick, pull you down and scapegoat you in any way they can. Abusive narcissists and sociopaths employ a logical fallacy known as "moving the goalposts" in order to ensure that they have every reason to be perpetually dissatisfied with you. This is when, even after you've provided all the evidence in the world to validate your argument or taken an action to meet their request, they set up another expectation of you or demand more proof. ITS leadership manages in destructive criticism, and it's important to know the difference of how you are being treated.

Sam J

on 9/11/17 at 3:13 pm

Advice for those at ITS, before you start following the masses in your leadership, remember that sometimes that M is silent.

Jeff M

on 9/11/17 at 3:16 pm

Why are we being limited in the amount of time we can post? Why are our comments removed when they follow the new "rules"? How did the CIO have the power to stifle our ability to speak our minds? Is this all about ITS being against our right to speech and academic freedoms?

James Iseler

on 9/11/17 at 5:28 pm

At no time has the University Record received any request or direction from Kelli Trosvig or anyone else within the university administration to remove, edit or restrict comments made on any stories. The decision to limit comments to a 60-day period was independently enacted by the Record based on the belief that two months allows adequate exploration of any story or related comments. In the few instances where comments have been removed, it was because the Record editors determined they violated our commenting guidelines. As online editor at the Record, I invite anyone with questions about the commenting procedures or guidelines to contact me directly at 734-647-3099.

T S

on 9/11/17 at 6:56 pm

Remember when ITS used to have employee satisfaction surveys and leadership that actually tried to make ITS a better place? Not perfect, but far better when we were part of B&F. I used to think being outside of B&F was a good thing, however, it's pretty clear it was a mistake.

G R

on 9/11/17 at 7:59 pm

I would like to know how this was decided because they couldn't have surveyed any ITS employee. Being a long time employee of ITS, I can attest that the employee moral has NEVER been this low. I have never seen so much back stabbing and blatant lies come from C- level staff that is seen within ITS. It's incredibly sad to see the deterioration of an organization happen so quickly. Employee's are dropping like flies and for those of us good ones left, we are looking to leave thus leaving only the poor performers. Kelli wants to make budget cuts, but there is not any strategic thought to how she would accomplish this. Why does ITS need the administration group? Isn't that why the SSC was created? Isn't our administration just duplicating the work this doubling the costs? How is keeping the group even justified and now we are going to add a CTO? How could this be approved? We are killing ourselves to get the work done and are continuously told there isn't budget to fill open positions but we will hire a CTO so Kelli can push the buck when something else fails.

Karen M

on 9/11/17 at 10:45 pm

She bragged in front of a large group of people that she has the power to change The Record. She wanted to have no comments, and the compromise was to reduce the time of posting and setting up rules. She literally told everyone that was in hearing distance that she was changing The Record and that she had similar comments removed from UW. Yes, she actually said that, and has zero self awareness that the issue isn't the comments written about her, but the million voices trying to tell her something about her behavior.

Karen .

on 9/11/17 at 10:51 pm

She bragged in front of a large group of people that she has the power to change The Record. She wanted to have no comments, and the compromise was to reduce the time of posting and setting up rules. She told everyone in hearing distance that she was changing The Record and that she had similar comments removed from UW. Yes, she actually said that, and has zero self awareness that the issue isn't the comments written about her, but the million voices trying to tell her something about her behavior. So rather than shut the comments, why doesn't she just shut her mouth?

Brian Palmby

on 9/12/17 at 3:49 pm

Wow these commenters must have spent solid weeks nonstop with Kelli to come to these horrible conclusions.

I haven't see any of the above behaviors, anywhere in ITS. The budget is healthy again, and we have a long term strategy.

My boss serves on the DE&I committee and not only are you are undermining Kelli, Carrie, and other hard workers, but all of my bosses hard work too.

People still sensitive about a reorg and reduction in force, which was done way more fairly than I have seen anywhere elsewhere, get over it and stop creating a different narrative to make yourself feel good. Or leave.

S C

on 9/12/17 at 7:42 pm

I have no clue if you're a real person or not, but if you are, then you are one who is so brave because you have never been mistreated or watched those who you cared about treated badly. Thanks for also helping Trump into office while you're at it. Let's keep on keeping on with oppressing the reality that the rest of us face...

R T

on 9/13/17 at 8:55 am

Not everyone in ITS is bad, you have to realize that we have about 1000 people that work in our central IT group. If you have a good manager or supervisor that has sheltered you from the CIO and her team, it's not as bad as it sounds. I think that there about 50 -75 of us good people left in ITS, so it's not every one that is causing the problems. There's probably even 1 or 2 good Directors too, because you can't have about 50 people in her leadership that are all bad either. The odds are against the ability to hire all people who are exactly like the CIO, though she will probably change that over time by replacing the leadership for those who fit her culture.

Janet B

on 9/13/17 at 9:54 am

The good thing for those of us who work for ITS is that we don't pay for parking. It's free for those of us at Arbor Lakes! So there are perks if you work at ITS that makes it one of the best places on campus for us to work! Who else can claim that on campus?

Joel S

on 9/13/17 at 11:20 am

ITS doesn't have to pay for parking? Isn't it expensive enough to have so many IT people and they don't even have to contribute like everyone else? Why are the rest of us subsidizing ITS workers?

John Vega

on 9/13/17 at 3:40 pm

Joel, ITS employees located on campus pay for parking. Off-site employees don't pay for parking.

Mike F

on 9/13/17 at 7:45 pm

Isn't NCRC and WOTO considered off campus too? I know those employees are required to pay for parking. They are both equally far from main campus and they are regular employees too. Why does Arbor Lakes ITS staff get a break?

Bill M

on 9/13/17 at 7:40 pm

What else are we subsidizing for ITS? It seems the new CIO is unable to manage her financials since she is now adding more layers and costs for IT are going up. We are paying for an enormous IT organization and they are always growing and increasing their rates. Now, we are also expected to accept cost shifts and cost increases for network and security and MiW inflation soon. Why do we subsidize IT cost increases again and again? Centralizing is supposed to be cheaper and more efficient, not more money and more complexities.

Kelli Trosvig

on 9/14/17 at 7:41 am

Since my arrival last November, I have discovered that U-M is indeed a Great College to Work For. It is where faculty, staff and students can exchange diverse ideas and perspectives and learn from one another. The University Record comments section is one place where campus community members can provide feedback and voice their thoughts, feelings, expectations and concerns.

Feedback is a gift, but the comments over the past several weeks about various ITS leaders have been difficult to read. The challenge has been to separate the genuine critiques that my team and I can act on from the unfair criticisms that feel as if they were meant to wound and harm others.

I regularly look for ways to engage with ITS staff and the university community to hear what they are saying and to respond thoughtfully to their questions and concerns. The goal is to provide world-class IT to a world-class research institution. We will get there, in part, through a considerate and respectful exchange of ideas.

For those who have commented or would like to discuss any issue, please reach out to me at trosvig.cio@umich.edu or 734-763-7109. Let's connect by telephone or in-person and work through whatever issues or concerns may exist, so we can more effectively channel our energies into helping achieve the university's mission.

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